A Russian missile strike caused damage to a historic windmill at the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine. It was part of the “Polissya” exhibition.
The Ministry of Culture reported this.
During the night of July 5th to 6th, the blast wave damaged a windmill from the village of Yunakivka, Sumy region, dating back to 1933–1934.
The National Police have already documented the damage. Currently, the museum team is assessing the losses and preparing the necessary documents to commence restoration work.
During the inspection, specialists found that the windmill’s roof (the hipped part) had shifted relative to its base. Furthermore, the blast wave critically damaged the sails and their fastenings. According to expert conclusions, these parts will need to be replaced as restoration is impossible.
“The windmill from Yunakivka has weathered decades of history, preserving the memory of the lives of entire generations of Ukrainians, and last night it suffered from Russian aggression. This is another crime against our heritage and further evidence of Russia’s systematic war against Ukrainian culture,” stated the Vice Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy of Ukraine and Minister of Culture of Ukraine, Tetyana Berezhna.
How Russia is Destroying Ukrainian Cultural Heritage
According to the Ministry of Culture, approximately 1900 cultural heritage sites and about 2700 cultural infrastructure facilities have been damaged or destroyed as a result of Russian aggression.
Specifically, 14 cultural institutions were damaged during the shelling of Kyiv in late May. These include the Chornobyl Museum, the National Music Academy of Ukraine, the “Ukrainian” House, and the National Art Museum of Ukraine.
The ministry also notes that Russia has stolen over 35,000 museum exhibits from de-occupied and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. An additional 1.7 million exhibits remain in temporarily occupied territories and are at risk of theft and destruction.
Regional institutions have suffered the most significant losses, including:
- During the occupation of Kherson and the right-bank part of Kherson Oblast, approximately 15,000 items were removed from local museums (including the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Art Museum);
- Over 2,000 unique historical treasures were stolen from the city museums of Mariupol, and the Arkhip Kuindzhi Art Museum was destroyed.
Additionally, the Hryhorii Skovoroda Literary-Memorial Museum in the Kharkiv region was destroyed by a targeted strike, as was the Museum of General-Khorunzhii of UPA Roman Shukhevych in Lviv. In the Kyiv region, a museum housing works by the Ukrainian artist Maria Pryimachenko was destroyed in 2022, though some of these works were managed to be saved by local residents.